118 — 5 Brutal Questions Every $1M–$10M Founder Must Answer Before 2025
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This week, I challenges Founders with five critical questions that can uncover growth bottlenecks, identify profit opportunities, and set the stage for exponential business success in 2025.
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Ready to make 2025 a transformational year for your business? In this final ScaleHQ episode of 2024, I reflect on five brutal but pivotal questions every Founder should ask before the year ends. These needle-moving questions are designed to help you reflect, strategise, and plan for the year ahead. Whether you're aiming to scale, improve profitability, or step back from day-to-day operations, these questions are your guide to transformation.
In the podcast, I talk about:Â Â Â
- Identify growth bottlenecks: Learn how to pinpoint and address the biggest barriers to your growth, from improving your sales process to optimising team efficiency
- Double your profits with simple strategies: Explore actionable ideas like raising prices, cutting inefficiencies, or introducing high-margin premium offerings
- Transform your leadership: Understand why upgrading your own leadership style and letting go of control can drive better business outcomes
- Create exponential results with big moves: Discover the impact of strategic partnerships, subscription models, and focusing on larger, high-value contracts
- Stop tolerating what holds you back: Examine toxic clients, broken processes, and ineffective spending to free up resources and create capacity for growth
This must-listen episode is packed with real-world examples and frameworks to help you contextualise these questions for your own business. Tune in and discover how a few hours of reflection can lead to a year of remarkable growth.
Thank you for an incredible 2024! Signing off for the year, but I’ll be back in 2025 with more insights, strategies, and inspiration to help you scale your business. Happy Holidays!
ABOUTÂ OURÂ GUEST:
Sean's not a startup guy.He is an expert in buying, building, and scaling businesses.
With his teams, he developed growth strategies and execution plans that led to the creation of over $100 million in new revenue for 4 companies over 8 years.
These companies included both large and small businesses, so Sean is uniquely positioned to understand the challenges Founders face at different stages of their scaling journey.
Sean now shares his methodology and frameworks for preparing for investment, installing management and full exits for 1m-30m businesses through his advisory services, podcasts and education programs.
The founders Sean mentors personally grow revenue by an average of 43%, EBITDA by 94% and enterprise value of 111% over the first two years.
He brings over 15 years of experience in growing businesses to the table. He’s integrated 7 brands into larger structures, scrutinised over 200 acquisitions, and consulted with ASX-listed companies on their acquisition strategies.
Sean is also the host of the ScaleHQ Podcast where he shares his methods, interviews successful entrepreneurs, experts on scaling, and Founders striving to scale.
About Sean Steele
Sean has led several education businesses through various growth stages including 0-3m, 1-6m, 3-50m and 80m-120m. He's evaluated over 200 M&A deals and integrated or started 7 brands within larger structures since 2012. Sean's experience in building the foundations of organisations to enable scale uniquely positions him to host the ScaleUps podcast.
